FROM THE
CHIEF EXECUTIVE by Ian Dunn
in style and content. As we seek to enhance the impact of the Galapagos Conservation Trust in the conservation and sustainable development of Galapagos, we will share with you our successes and challenges in these pages and through our digital communications. Please visit our website savegalapagos.org and sign up to our e-newsletter to keep up-to-date with news between these biannual magazines. In this edition, we will cover our new giant tortoise project that we are working on with The Zoological Society of London, the British Chelonia Group and Professor Steve Blake (p. 19). We will introduce you to Discovering Galapagos (p. 15) – our exciting new bilingual educational tool being developed in partnership with the Royal Geographical Society. We will outline the immense effort being undertaken to eradicate invasive rats from the Islands (p. 8). There are new pages featuring the work of the Charles Darwin Foundation (p. 7) and a column entitled ‘global relevance’ (p. 20), which looks into how the work we support in Galapagos can help further knowledge or solutions to some of the wider issues humanity is facing. In our events section (p. 13), you will see an increasing span of activities as we step up our outreach programme. I am particularly delighted that we will be holding an evening with Sir David Attenborough in June and also running a trip to Galapagos in November. Our events this year will take us to several locations in and out of London, as well as to speaking engagements around the country. We hope to see you at one of them. Thank you to the 450 members who took the time to complete last year’s membership survey. We share a summary of feedback from the survey in our membership section (p. 21). This feedback enables
Photography by GCT/Ian Dunn
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ELCOME TO OUR NEW-LOOK GALAPAGOS MATTERS. We hope you like the changes
us to respond to your expectations and interests in a more focused manner; the changes to this magazine are part of that response. I am very pleased to let you know that our recent Darwin’s Songbirds Appeal generated over £25,000. We are beginning to put this money to use, primarily in tackling Philornis downsi, which continues to have a devastating impact on Darwin’s Finches and other songbirds. We will keep you informed of progress. Keep an eye out also for our forthcoming shark appeal. By working with the Zoological Society of London, the Charles Darwin Foundation, and others we will be seeking new ways of protecting these fascinating but endangered predators. The health of marine ecosystems, including the Galapagos Marine Reserve, requires our attention and will be the focus of our next edition. We hope you enjoy the wonderful photography we have selected, some of which features in our 2014 calendar. We are refreshing our merchandise range, and gifts for any time of year can be found at the back of this magazine or on our website. Finally, I personally invite feedback on any of the articles, on the magazine overall and on the work we are undertaking to Ian@gct.org. We really do want you to share your views with us, and hopefully also with your friends. Let them know that Galapagos Matters! ■
Galapagos Matters is a copyright twiceyearly publication produced for members of the Galapagos Conservation Trust. The information in this issue was obtained ISSN 2050-6074 GalapagosMatters is Designer: The Graphic Design House from various sources, all of which have printed on paper made from well managed Printer: Bishops Printers extensive knowledge of Galapagos, but forests and controlled sources. Charles Darwin Suite, 28 Portland Place, neither GCT nor the contributors are Editor: Henry Nicholls London W1B 1LY responsible for the accuracy of the Chief Executive: Ian Dunn www.savegalapagos.org gct@gct.org contents or the opinions expressed herein. Communications Manager: Neil Aldridge 020 7399 7440
SPRING | SUMMER 2013
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